Not riding yesterday put me behind for the week so I looked at the ride workout history in SportTracks at a route I haven’t done since May 28th, 2019, Kingwood – Hare Cook Road – Kingwood. That time I rode 45.49 miles but I now incorporate some streets in the beginning when I ride south that I didn’t use back then. I guessed the new distance would be around 48 miles and today’s bike ride came in at 47.52 miles. This route includes most of the Kingwood – Stroker Road – Kingwood roads but adds an extension going south from Stroker Road on Miller Wilson Road to Hare Cook Road that goes west to FM 2100 and then north rejoins the Stroker Road route. Road construction on FM 2100 kept me away for almost 4 years. With no room for biking I avoided the area but now the construction is mostly finished and a nice wide shoulder runs from Hare Cook Road north to FM 1960 in Huffman. This route is a good preliminary ride to circling Lake Houston.

Tuesday wasn’t a total bust for bike things. I applied Silca Super Secret chain lube on the Cervelo’s chain which began making some rubbing noises on the last few rides. Today’s ride was silent running with the chain whirring nicely. The chain has 7,075 miles of use. That is much more than I usually get on my previous bikes.

Watching three races this morning didn’t delay the ride start much with my Cervelo Caledonia’s wheels down at 10:26 AM. I hoped to finish the ride around 2 PM and did at 2:01 PM.

Weather: Start 77 degrees, 70% humidity, dew point 67, mostly cloudy, wind S 14 mph gusts 22 mph; Finish 82 degrees, 64% humidity, dew point 68, mostly cloudy, wind S 15 mph gusts 25 mph. I wore shorts, a long sleeve jersey with a short sleeve jersey over it. I was comfortable but I probably could’ve not worn the long sleeve jersey and added arm sleeves for sun protection. I probably should’ve stopped on FM 2100 and refilled my water bottle with ice water at one of the stores. It was almost empty at the finish.

Heading south the wind was going to be tough until Stroker Road where I turned west but Miller Wilson Road was back into the headwind going south until the right turn onto Hare Cook Road and a tailwind back to FM 2100 and all the way north to Huffman at FM 1960. My legs rejoiced when the tailwind began after working hard on Old Atascocita Road, Ramsey Road, and Miller Wilson Road. They were strong enough to push the 35×13 gears into the wind. The images below are from my AXS.SRAM.com ride report.

I find the ride cadence data interesting especially on a longer ride. 11775 crank revolutions with active cadence time of 2:57:45 out of the total moving time of 3:28:37 leaves about 31 minutes when I wasn’t pedaling.